Archives
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Recent Posts
- IL: A backpack is not as personal a repository of stuff as a purse or wallet; officers ordered it left in vehicle for safety reasons and it was inventoried
- DE: Cell phone SW was limited by time and data sought, so it was not a general warrant
- MD: Under Bruen, mere possession of a handgun outside the home is no longer RS; Terry stop doesn’t include looking in a bag
- MO: When officers came with an arrest warrant, def’s admission he had a firearm justified the entry
- PA: Shining flashlight into hole in a shoebox was a search; there was a REP in the closed box
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com
Search and Seizure (6th ed. 2025)
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-26,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 600,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 50,000 posts since 2003 (29,000 on WordPress as of 12/31/25) -
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Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded
rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)
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“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for
the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came
for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.”
– John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper -
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948) -
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
Website design by Wally Waller, Colorado Springs. 
Author Archives: Hall
D.Nev.: Cell tower dump to solve a murder was a general warrant, but not suppressed
A California state judge issued a cell tower dump warrant to attempt to find who could have been involved in two dead bodies in the desert. The judge testified at the suppression hearing in the District of Nevada. The cell … Continue reading
OH5: Place and time of encounter plus serious sweating and making not much sense when talking here added up to RS
Place and time of encounter plus serious sweating and making not much sense when talking added up to reasonable suspicion. State v. Doering, 2025-Ohio-1297 (5th Dist. Apr. 10, 2025).* An interesting set of facts:
D.Alaska: Recklessly omitted text messages were material to PC finding; suppression granted
Omitted text messages were material to the probable cause finding, and the officer was at least reckless in not including them. Franks satisfied: “Therefore, the Court agrees with Judge Scoble’s reasoning, adopts his analysis, and finds that, had Detective Ruble … Continue reading
CA10: Disabled vehicle left parked along a highway is subject to impoundment
A disabled vehicle left parked along a highway is subject to impoundment. Jones v. Woodrow, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 8419 (10th Cir. Apr. 10, 2025).* Defendant’s stop was valid because of a defective LPN light. This led to discovering a … Continue reading
TX3: It was a fair inference for PC that evidence of def’s social media posts were on his phone
Defendant was a suspect in a driveby shooting. Because defendant’s social media showed firearms, it was a fair inference that evidence of the offense or the social media posts would be on his phone. Therefore, there was probable cause for … Continue reading
CA2: In getting arrest warrant, defenses don’t have to be considered
In a false arrest claim, the officer procuring the warrant doesn’t have to negate plaintiff’s defenses beforehand. Glover v. Onondaga Cty., 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 8436 (2d Cir. Apr. 10, 2025)*:
CA9: Motel owner can’t assert guests’ rights
“Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim fails because Plaintiffs cannot assert the rights of the Motel’s guests, Plumhoff v. Rickard, 572 U.S. 765, 778 (2014), and police entry into the Motel’s public areas does not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment, … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Subpoena for times connected to IP address is not for transactional information and thus is valid
A subpoena is sufficient for IP information that only showed when connected, but not where connected (transactional information). In re United States for Non Disclosure Ord. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2705B Relating to Grand Jury Subpoena, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
LAT: A rich L.A. neighborhood donated surveillance technology to the LAPD — then drama ensued
LAT: A rich L.A. neighborhood donated surveillance technology to the LAPD — then drama ensued by Libor Jany:
VA: Arrest warrant not needed for DUI arrest in def’s driveway
Defendant wasn’t under arrest when he consented to a field sobriety test in his own driveway. Officers didn’t need an arrest warrant to arrest him there. Poulson v. Commonwealth, 2025 Va. LEXIS 17 (Apr. 10, 2025). The affidavit as a … Continue reading
VA: Suppression in a potential criminal case not a civil court remedy
Plaintiff has a turkey hunting plot of land with 100 no trespassing signs around it. Virginia wildlife officers entered the land, found trail cameras and seized them to look at the pictures. Plaintiff sued under the state constitution and statute. … Continue reading
CA11: Border searches of electronic devices need no RS
Border searches of electronic devices need no reasonable suspicion, unlike intensive searches of the body. Riley did not change that. United States v. Pulido, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 8264 (11th Cir. Apr. 8, 2025). Later acquired information can’t be used … Continue reading
MT: Affidavit for warrant doesn’t have to anticipate defenses to potential charge
The affidavit for arrest isn’t required to rebut defendant’s potential defenses; just show probable cause. State v. Kalina, 2025 MT 70, 2025 Mont. LEXIS 352 (Apr. 8, 2025). The court had enough information to rule on the totality of circumstances … Continue reading
CA5: Just because Bivens might become a dead letter doesn’t mean that the officers didn’t violate the 4A
Just because Bivens might become a dead letter doesn’t mean that the officers didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. Villarreal v. City of Laredo, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 8241 (5th Cir. Apr. 8, 2025). My words, not the court’s but that’s … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: No REP in workplace computer
Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his workplace computer. Zennamo v. Cty. of Oneida, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66916 (N.D.N.Y. Mar. 18, 2025). One officer accidentally shooting another when using deadly force against a civilian was not an … Continue reading
MN: SW for tax records was reasonable even when the state already has them
This search warrant for defendant’s tax records was valid despite the defense claim the government already had his tax records. State v. Auleciems, 2025 Minn. App. Unpub. LEXIS 212 (Apr. 7, 2025). [Logically, if they can show probable cause there’s … Continue reading
ALCU: Open Letter to Federal Magistrate Judges Within the Ninth Circuit on [8 U.S.C. §] 1324 Warrants
ALCU: Open Letter to Federal Magistrate Judges Within the Ninth Circuit on [8 U.S.C. §] 1324 Warrants (April 8, 2025):
Mother Jones: The Shocking Far-Right Agenda Behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI
Mother Jones: The Shocking Far-Right Agenda Behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI by Luke O’Brien (“Thousands of newly obtained documents show that Clearview AI’s founders always intended to target immigrants and the political left. Now … Continue reading
TheStreet: Google’s Waymo is planning a move that’s downright creepy
TheStreet: Google’s Waymo is planning a move that’s downright creepy by Colette Bennett:
OH5: CIs’ reliability shown by other facts
The CIs’ statements weren’t individually supported by a showing of why they were reliable. Instead, corroboration came from the rest of the detail in the affidavit. State v. Shannon, 2025-Ohio-1224, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS 1188 (5th Dist. Apr. 7, 2025). … Continue reading